This invention relates to the incorporation of airbag systems into a vehicle trim panel, wherein the panel is provided with a seamless cover over the airbag.
The incorporation of airbags into vehicles has created many design challenges for automotive designers. One challenge is incorporating the airbag into the instrument panel in front of the vehicle passenger seat. One particular challenge is providing an airbag cover that will reliably and safely tear, such that the passenger is protected. It is important that a tear seam be provided in the instrument panel cover to ensure that the airbag will safely deploy. In addition, after deployment it is also important that the torn portions of the airbag cover also provide as much protection to the passenger as possible.
One other design challenge, is that the vehicle designer would like to have a continuous surface on the instrument panel wherever possible. Thus, vehicle designers would prefer not to have a separate airbag cover in the instrument panel. This desire has led to another type of prior art system wherein tear seams were molded into the vehicle instrument panel. The tear seams will tear upon deployment of the airbag, allowing the airbag to deploy. Various configurations of the tear seams are known, including h-shaped, or flap-type.
More recently, there has been an effort to achieve a"seamless" design wherein there is no indication on the outer surface of the instrument panel that the airbag is behind the instrument panel. Thus, any seams or tear strips provided in the instrument panel are only provided on the under surface, and not on the show surface. However, providing appropriate structure for deploying the airbag and tearing through the instrument panel with such systems has not been fully satisfactory.